My Mother Refused to Weed.

• Author: Ostriker, Alicia
• Position: Poem

My mother refused to weed she had lived through depression and war she had been glad to leave the city she wanted nothing to die she wanted everything to flourish and thrive when she planted she crumbled the clods by hand her garden was a thriving mess some years a hall of sunflowers a chaos of vivid cosmos some years "dependable beauty" said the catalog we have photographs of her in a peasant blouse in that garden laughing wearing her mortality on her face that was never veiled the flowers shoulder high she was so small ultimately raspberries took over thorny canes arched across her cement walk a sign of pride...